Seek the Lord, Even if No One Else Does (Amos 5)
A common illustration that is used is that the best way for an artist to highlight something bright is to give it a dark background. This is true for biblical situations as well. We can see the brightness of salvation when it is contrasted with the dark background of judgement. This way of speaking is found repeatedly in the messages of Amos.
In Amos 5, we read another of his addresses to the northern kingdom. He again urges the people to seek for individual salvation (5:4), even although the nation as a whole was going to go into exile as a punishment for her sins. Amos repeats the manner of the punishment and the reasons for the punishment throughout this address – that is the dark background. We can remind ourselves of them before thinking about the brightness of the individual invitation that God gives through Amos.
The judgement described
In verse 2, the prophet says that Israel will be isolated: ‘Fallen, no more to rise, is the virgin Israel; forsaken on her land, with none to raise her up.’ She will undergo depopulation: ‘The city that went out a thousand shall have a hundred left, and that which went out a hundred shall have ten left to the house of Israel’ (v. 3). There is no point in them worshipping at the religious locations connected with her false worship: ‘but do not seek Bethel, and do not enter into Gilgal or cross over to Beersheba; for Gilgal shall surely go into exile, and Bethel shall come to nothing’ (v. 5).
Why would the judgement come? The reason for the judgement was the failure to practice righteousness: ‘O you who turn justice to wormwood and cast down righteousness to the earth!’ (v. 7). Their sin is further detailed in verses 10-13: ‘They hate him who reproves in the gate, and they abhor him who speaks the truth. Therefore because you trample on the poor and you exact taxes of grain from him, you have built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not dwell in them; you have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine. For I know how many are your transgressions and how great are your sins— you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe, and turn aside the needy in the gate. Therefore he who is prudent will keep silent in such a time, for it is an evil time.’
What will the judgement be like? God describes the effects of his judgement in verses 16 and 17: ‘“In all the squares there shall be wailing, and in all the streets they shall say, ‘Alas! Alas!’ They shall call the farmers to mourning and to wailing those who are skilled in lamentation, and in all vineyards there shall be wailing, for I will pass through your midst,” says the Lord.’ In the city and in the countryside, there will be lamentation.
What about wrong religious discussion? There evidently were some among the Israelites who engaged in religious speculation about the day of the Lord, which is a way of describing the coming of God in judgement. The Lord points out in verses 18-20 that, when it comes, the day of the Lord will not be a pleasant experience: ‘Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord! Why would you have the day of the Lord? It is darkness, and not light, as if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him, or went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall, and a serpent bit him. Is not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light, and gloom with no brightness in it?’ Obviously, mere religious talk without righteous living is highly offensive to the Lord.
How much does the Lord hate false religion? He tells us in verses 21-23: ‘I hate, I despise your feasts, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen.’ Instead, the Lord desires holy living: ‘But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.’
God reminds the Israelites of their forefathers in verses 25-26: ‘“Did you bring to me sacrifices and offerings during the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? You shall take up Sikkuth your king, and Kiyyun your star-god—your images that you made for yourselves, and I will send you into exile beyond Damascus,” says the Lord, whose name is the God of hosts.’ Here, Amos refers to images of false gods that they had made for themselves. Behind those images was worship of an Assyrian god connected to the planet Saturn (Sikkuth is Saturn) and worship of a star called Kiyyun. We should not be surprised that the divine judgement would yet involve the Assyrian empire. The people of the northern kingdom would reap what they sowed.
Who is the Judge (vv. 8-9)?
We may wonder about why Amos repeats some details about God that he has already mentioned. I suppose the answer is that people easily forget who he is. After all, what truths about God did we remind ourselves of when we prepared for worshipping him in this service? So what does Amos say about him?
He is the creator of the heavens and the controller of providence. Amos refers to two groups of stars visible in the night sky. It is possible that Amos refers to those two constellations because they marked the changes of the seasons – Pleiades indicated the coming of spring and Orion the coming of winter. This would connect with the next statement about him which says that the Lord is in charge of time because he controls the arrival of the morning and the coming of the evening. Moreover, the Lord is in control of the process of rain. Amos and his hearers were aware of some science. They knew about the water being caught up in the Mediterranean and coming down on the land in the form of showers. ‘The revolutions of day and night and the formation and fall of rain are indisputable proofs of the Presence of eternal power and Godhead!’ (Spurgeon). He can easily defeat the mighty powers by sending lightning on a fortress. The Israelites trusted in their army, but it would be powerless when attacked by God. Imagine such a God being against you, using as his weapons features of his creation.
Yet he is the covenant God – the Lord is his name. This means that he keeps his Word. He had promised Israel that if they served him they would know his blessings but if they departed from him and served other gods he would punish them and bring curses instead of blessings.
Call for personal dealings with God (vv. 4, 6)
God gives the call to the Israelites in verse 4 – ‘Seek me and live’; and Amos gives the call to them in verse 6 – ‘Seek the Lord and live.’ Both urge an action and state an outcome. The action is described as ‘seeking’ and the outcome is described as ‘life’.
With regard to the action, when do we seek for God and where do we seek for God? The ‘when’ must be a time when he can be found. There is no point seeking for him at any other time. So when can God be found? Two answers can be given, and they mean the same thing. We seek him now and we seek him as soon as possible.
Where do we seek God? We don’t have to go to a particular place. Where we are at the moment is as good a place as any. The place where we seek him is not physical. Rather it has to be a place where he is. A good place to seek him is the Bible. But not just anywhere in the Bible. There are passages in the Bible that have nothing to say to seeking sinners. So we should consider Bible passages that are directed to seeking sinners, passages that indicate what happens in such a process.
How about using John 3:16? Or John 1:29, where we are told to behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Or Matthew 11:28-30: ‘Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’ Or John 6:37: ‘whoever comes to me I will never cast out.’
How do we seek God? With our whole heart. ‘You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart’ (Jer. 29:13). It must be our priority, our passion, our determination, our goal. We don’t seek for God in the way we try to find a destination for a holiday. Seeking the Lord means discussing his promises with him, and leaning upon his promises as we do.
The outcome is life. Obviously, the Lord is not referring to physical life because the Israelites already had it. Rather it is spiritual life, the way a person lives after they discover the grace of God. There are many ways of describing the expression of spiritual life, and one of them is described in verses 14 and 15. In those verses, we see described life with God.
Call to new living (vv. 14-15)
Having discovered the way back to God as individuals, there are certain consequences and Amos describes them here. To begin with, he mentions the importance of conduct, of ceasing sinful actions and practicing good ones, both in private and in public (the gate). People are not saved by doing them, but the doing of them is the evidence that they are saved.
A second feature of the new life is company, and the One we now have with us is the Lord. Amos points out that the Lord who is present with us is the God of hosts, which is a reference to angels, and is a reminder also of our security.
The third feature that I would mention is divine consolation. Amos mentions that the remnant (those who turned from their sins) would experience some expressions of the grace of God even although his judgements were still going to come on the nation.
Some lessons for ourselves
The first detail that we can observe is the style of sermon that Amos preached. His address is a lamentation. Obviously a lamentation describes a sad event, but it is more than that. It is also a sad experience for the speaker. We should imagine Amos weeping as he spoke about the certain judgement that was coming and as he urged individuals to turn from their sins.
A second detail concerns places of historical interest. Amos mentions three of them in verse 5 – Gilgal, Bethel, and Beersheba. In the past, God had met with his people in those places. But it was not their past that was important now, it was their present. And the behaviour in the present of people at those places meant that they would disappear in the exile. We have lots of places of historical interest where God did great things in the past. What matters now is what is going on in them in the present. In previous centuries, the gospel was preached in every city, town and village in our country. A noble past, into which we can escape. What should concern us is the present departure from God and his ways, because judgement may come.
Third, we should observe the immediacy of the call that God gave through Amos. He says in verse 6: ‘Seek the Lord and live, lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and it devour, with none to quench it for Bethel.’ This is not a reference to the judgement of the exile because it was still a few decades away. Rather, it is a warning of judgement before the judgement. They were urged to seek the Lord lest sudden judgement come. Is that not where we are? The general judgement may be a long time away, although it may not. But that does not mean that there is no immediacy to the gospel call. The best time to respond to the call of the gospel is right away.
Fourth, what can we expect if we belong to the Lord? The answer to this question is found in the description of new life that Amos gave (vv. 14-15). We can have the company of the Lord, with all the security connected to that relationship. The Lord will give the grace for living a new lifestyle, and he will also provide spiritual consolations even if we live in difficult and dangerous times.